Open Season on Fayyad: Hamas Threatens PA Leader

Hamas terrorist organization, which runs Gaza, says the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, must be put on trial.

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Hillel Fendel, 04/04/10 11:51 | updated: 11:59

Gaza

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The Hamas terrorist organization, which governs a large part of the area that the U.S. wants to turn into a Palestinian state, says that the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, must be put on trial.

Widely considered “pragmatic” and “moderate,” Fayyad has served as prime minister of the PA since May 2009.

Noting that Jihad against Israel would continue, Hamas stated that Fayyad is plotting to “liquidate the Palestinian [refugee] problem,” and that therefore he is an “illegitimate personality, who took control in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] unrightfully, in that the Legislative Council did not grant him governmental authorities.”

Fayyad’s statements render him “akin to those who trade in the Palestinian problem and land,” the Hamas statement reads. “They will never be able to deter the Palestinian nation [sic] from the way of Jihad up to the liberation of Palestine and the return of the refugees to their homes and places of resident from which they were expelled.”

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs left Israel after the declaration of the Jewish State in 1948 at the behest of Arab countries that assured them they would soon be able to return as victors.

Fayyad’s hands, according to Hamas, “are soiled with the suffering of thousands of captives [prisoners in Israeli jails for having committed terrorist crimes] and dead in the West Bank, and therefore there is no choice but to place him on popular and official trial.” Analysts say this language is akin to announcing that killing Fayyad is acceptable.

Kadima MK HaNegbi: Yes to PA StateAt the same time, a former Israeli hawk has expressed support for a future Palestinian state. Tzachi HaNegbi - who bodily opposed the withdrawal from Sinai in 1982, is a longtime Likud member and is the son of former nationalist MK and Lehi member Geulah Cohen – now says that the establishment of a Palestinian state next year is a “correct move,” as long as it is carried out in coordination with Israel. If not, he told Voice of Israel Hebrew radio, Israel must act to make sure the world does not recognize the unilateral PA action.

HaNegbi, currently chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, switched over to the Kadima party following the expulsion/Disengagement from Gaza, and since then has often taken “moderate”ly left positions. This is a switch from the way he began his political career as a student leader in 1982, staging a sit-in atop a memorial monument in Yamit (the city destroyed by Begin's government) for several days in protest of the withdrawal from Sinai.